Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention, 1978 (No. 151) - Belgium (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee takes note of the Government's first report.

Article 1, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Convention. The Committee stresses that under this Article only high-level employees or employees whose duties are of a highly confidential nature may be excluded from the guarantees provided for in the Convention. It asks the Government to indicate under which texts the public servants who are excluded from the scope of the Act of 1974 and its implementing Orders (section 1(2) of the Act of 1974 and section 4 of Royal Order of 1984) but who may not be excluded from the scope of the Convention (particularly university teaching staff and registrars), and their organizations, enjoy the guarantees laid down in the Convention, and to provide information on the operation of machinery for determining conditions of employment and settling disputes involving them, if such machinery exists.

Article 7. The Committee notes that section 6 of the Act of 19 December 1974 provides that only representative organizations may sit on negotiating committees. It asks the Government to indicate whether any measures have been taken to ensure that minority organizations which do not sit on joint committees may take part in determining conditions of employment, or at least make representations on behalf of their members and represent them in the event of individual grievances.

With regard to section 7(1) of the Act of 19 December 1974 which provides that only public sector unions affiliated to an organization represented in the National Labour Council may participate in the work of general negotiating committees, the Committee refers to its comments on the application of Convention No. 87, and trusts that the Bill now being drafted will contain precise and pre-established objective criteria so as to preclude any possibility of partiality or abuse in choosing the public sector organizations to be represented in the above bodies.